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A love of running fast and the discipline of training--but not too hard--came together brilliantly for Sarah Toland '00 in November when she placed 11th among 213 runners at the National NCAA Division III cross-country championship race. With a 17:18.5 time on the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh's five-kilometer course, she earned All America honors and set a new Colby record, lopping 9.5 seconds off Michelle Severance Isham '94's Colby best. Before transferring to Colby as a sophomore, Toland ran simply for pleasure. "I was never very serious about it," she said. That changed after the native Cape Codder raced in a lifeguard competition and learned she was darned fast. Learning not to be too serious was her hardest lesson, according to women's running coach Debra Aitken. Toland sat out her sophomore year, injured. "It's definitely a challenge--getting her to realize that she needs to be healthy first," Aitken said. When Toland says she takes running more seriously than academics, it's simply evidence of how much she loves to run; with a 3.9-plus GPA she is, along with other elite students in her class, a Julius Seelye Bixler Scholar. As a senior Toland has her winter (indoor) and spring track seasons ahead and, though she claims not to be competitive, she said she would "like to break some records," perhaps in the three- and five-kilometer distances. "It's just a really great feeling to be running fast," she said. Maria Mensching '02, who has a perfect 4.0 GPA and like Toland is a member of the NESCAC All-Academic team, was Colby's other qualifier for the national cross-country championship. With a personal best (17:58) on the 3.1-mile Oshkosh course, she finished 60th, solidly in the top third of the nation's best Division III runners. |
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